Know
by Luna the HP fan
Summary: Book 1 of the Olde series. Renna and her twin little brother and sister, Tanyo and Tanyi, have to survive in the harsh world around them after their parents are killed in a flood. While fulfilling her parents' dying wish she finds a fox cub which she has a strange connection to... This does tie into Torak, Renn and Wolf by the way, just not until later. So no spoilers! :)


KNOW

Chapter 1

Renna was exhausted. She had just awoken from a sleep that was so restless she had felt as if she had not even slept at all. She had woken from her sloped den, in the middle of the night, to find it filled with water up to her knee and the rest of her family struggling to get to the door. Finally, they got out though the flap that covered the door and into… chaos! The whole place was flooded and the clan was in disarray. Many fires were under water as was much of the food, so darkness ruled the night. Clouds covered the stars and not even the moon was there, as it was the Time-of–No-light when the moon dies and the stars try to heal it, piece by piece.

Renna grabbed her little twin brother and sister, Tanyi and Tanyo, to stop them panicking and racing off. Her father, Murllokk, called her name, "Renna! Look after your brother and sister! Jainmin and I are going to help keep the Dam together! Now go!". " Right,"murmered Renna. She started to run and pull half-asleep Tanyi and Tanyo behind her. They pushed and shoved though the panicking children and the adults trying to help fix the holes in the Dam, before all the water started gushing out - it had so many holes already. The twins were tired and didn't understand why they were up past noon-night (how could they? They were only 2 summers old!). Tanyi tried at first, but even she lagged behind after a stretch. All of a sudden, Tanyo stumbled, tripped and fell into a muddy puddle, resulting in him crying out due to pain and humiliation. Just as Renna was picking him up, Tanyi squealed and said she had left her toy Forest Horse, Amu, in the den. She ran back in the direction of the den, pushing through the crowd. Snarling, Renna grabbed Tanyo, hoisted him onto her shoulders and tore after Tanyi.

She dodged through the swarm of people, ignoring the shouts of "Get away from here!" and "What you doing here? Go!". Renna pulled open the flap of her den and looked around. The water had risen - it was now half-way up her thigh - and so she struggled, wading through the muddy wetness, very glad that she was wearing her watertight seal-skin leggings and boots which her father had got from a friend in the white fox clan. It was dark in the den for the little light fires had been extinguished but Renna was a trained hunter and her instincts told her to see with her ears and not her eyes. Listen to the sounds and identify them. Renna closed her eyes. Among the cries of terror and the whining of Tanyo there was a splashing, flailing sound. The sound of a toddler, who has never swum before, try to swim. Renna opened her eyes and followed the sound, picking up her slightly drenched pack along the way. Suddenly, light flared though a hole in the flap, and right in front of Renna was a snivelling Tanyi holding on to a dripping wet Amu.

Renna took Tanyo off her shoulders then picked up her pack, hoisted it on to her shoulders, grabbed the twins and ran out the den. She looked at the Dam. Her parents stared at her and her mother cried, "Renna! You are Clanless! Tanyo is Rowen clan! Tanyi is Red Deer clan! Take them! Take them to their clans!". Renna nodded. She turned, then her father called out to her and she looked back, "Renna! We're sorry! We should have told you sooner! But you can-". Then the Dam burst and everything went black…

* * *

Darkness swirled, water rushed, salt was strong in her mouth. Smells were clogged; feelings were numb except for the grip of the twins. These were the first few fragmented thoughts that Renna had after the Dam burst. Oddly, her brain worked under-water. Well, under-river. Renna kicked her legs almost unthinkingly and slowly rose to the surface. She opened her eyes.

She was drifting along the current of the Long-Horn River. A female Long-Horned Auroch was lapping up the clear river water with its calf. As they passed, the calf stared at Renna and the twins, with its trusting dark-brown eyes, then lowered its head back down and carried on drinking.

Renna looked down at her little brother and sister. They were both alright by the looks of it, a little shocked and tired perhaps, but other than that fine. She told Tanyo to hold on to his sister then Renna gave him Tanyi's hand. With Renna's free hand she started to swim towards the bank all the while looking for something to pull herself up with: an over-hanging tree branch, a tree root, a hollow in the mud, anything. After some time had passed Renna saw a big sturdy tree root jutting out of the hard mud of the bank. Its tip was trailing in the river, licking up the water as if its thirst would never be quenched. Renna grabbed the root and hoisted Tanyo up, then Tanyi and then, finally, she hurled herself up and collapsed on to the soft grass. There, in the twinkling light of beginning dawn she fell into a deep, but restless, sleep.

* * *

Somewhere, high, high in the mountains and deep within a forgotten cave someone screamed. It was a scream like no other, one that told of deep anguish and of a fury so great that no single body could contain it forever. It told of a plan gone horribly wrong after years and years of planning. It was a scream that meant war.

"Nooooooooooooo! NO! How is it, that after years and years of planning I get stumped by one little girl and her tiny little protective spells?! I sent bears, I sent snow, I sent a flood for demons sake. Yet did they eat her, did it freeze her, did it drown her?" asked a figure in the gloom to two bats on a stone perch. The two bats stared back at the figure, as if afraid to utter even a squeak. "No! They didn't even cripple her!" shouted the figure. It lurched around the cave in an attempt at pacing. All the while, the bats watched it, their heads swivelling back and forth, back and forth, listening intently.

"I will have to deal with her another way," murmured the figure. "A more permanent way. A way she won't expect. How? How, how, how?". The figure lurched to the wall of the cavern, in which it paced, and laid its hand against the hard but soft stone. Its head jerked, a soft laugh rose up out of its throat and grew louder, more insane until anyone who heard it would cower away in fear. Unless you were the bats. The bats knew what that laugh would bring. That laugh would bring blood. And the bats liked blood…

* * *

**Please review and tell me what you thought! :)**


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